Count Basie - Frankly Basie: Count Basie Plays The Hits Of Frank Sinatra

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:20
Size: 108.4 MB
Styles: Big band, Swing
Year: 1963/2003
Art: Front

[4:31] 1. The Second Time Around
[2:46] 2. Hey! Jealous Lover
[3:30] 3. I'll Never Smile Again
[4:05] 4. Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week)
[3:03] 5. This Love Of Mine
[2:53] 6. I Thought About You
[3:12] 7. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
[2:41] 8. Come Fly With Me
[2:52] 9. On The Road To Mandalay
[3:13] 10. Only The Lonely
[3:51] 11. South Of The Border
[2:25] 12. All Of Me
[2:39] 13. My Kind Of Town
[2:51] 14. Come Rain Or Come Shine
[2:40] 15. Hey! Jealous Lover

Originally titled More Hits of the 50's and 60's, Frankly Basie: Count Basie Plays the Hits of Frank Sinatra, a salute to Frank Sinatra by the Count Basie Orchestra, is mostly closer to dance music than jazz. The original 12-song program featuring Billy Byers' arrangements is augmented by a "new" alternate take of "Hey! Jealous Lover" and two selections ("My Kind of Town" and "Come Rain or Come Shine") taken from the LP Basie Picks the Winners. "All of Me" is most memorable. ~Scott Yanow

Frankly Basie: Count Basie Plays The Hits Of Frank Sinatra

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Kate Meehan - Can I Play Too?

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:44
Size: 102.4 MB
Styles: Blues-jazz vocals
Year: 2004
Art: Front

[3:19] 1. I Ain't Got Nothing But The Blues
[3:44] 2. Wichita Lineman
[2:38] 3. Don't Go To Strangers
[5:03] 4. Aint Misbehavin
[4:29] 5. Body And Soul
[5:17] 6. You Don't Know What Love Is
[3:29] 7. Don't Touch Me
[4:48] 8. Don't Explain
[2:20] 9. All Of Me
[3:49] 10. The Gypsy
[1:59] 11. Paper Moon
[3:43] 12. Feel Like Going Home

Kate Meehan is an elegant, flaming, passionate singer, who shows herself as a woman with a special feeling for the blues, which is something enviable for women who live in the music business. The daughter of well known Hobart Jazz Trumpeter Clem Meehan, Kate was brought up with the sounds of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald bouncing around the lounge room. The sound of standards is in clear evidence on this disc, and well-executed versions are the order of the day. At times, the spirit of Julie London invades and a smoky, after hours feeling comes to the fore. Kate can really "mellow-down" and get a growl going too.

Can I Play Too?

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Johnny 'Hammond' Smith - Good 'Nuff

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s

Time: 71:35

Size: 163.9 MB

Styles: Hard bop, Soul-jazz

Year: 1962/2003

Art: Front

[6:28] 1. Good 'nuff

[7:10] 2. Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen

[3:30] 3. Sonja's Dreamland

[3:55] 4. Besame Mucho

[6:10] 5. Neck Bones

[4:15] 6. Delicious

[7:42] 7. Y'all

[6:42] 8. The Stinger

[5:29] 9. There Is No Greater Love

[3:57] 10. Brother John

[5:01] 11. Cleopatra And The African Knight 2

[6:57] 12. You Don't Know What Love Is

[4:13] 13. Bennie's Diggin'

Good 'Nuff combines two Smith '60s albums onto one CD: 1962's Johnny Hammond Smith Cooks With Gator Tail (co-billed to tenor saxophonist Willis Jackson) and 1965's The Stinger. "Good 'Nuff" is one of the tracks on Johnny Hammond Smith Cooks With Gator Tail, which is typical early-'60s Prestige soul-jazz, with all the good and bad that implies. The good? It hits a lockstep earthy groove, with funky organ by Smith, smoky sax from Jackson, and some smooth guitar from Eddie McFadden. The bad? Well, it's not bad, really, just predictable. The compositions usually have easygoing, unchallenging bluesy progressions, and the whole thing has the agreeable ambience of a good-time bar where the music fades more into the background the longer it continues. Smith wrote four of the seven songs, the program balanced by Jackson's "Y'All" and covers of "Besame Mucho" and the traditional "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen." "Sonja's Dreamland" goes the furthest into ballad territory, while "Neckbones" swings the hardest. The Stinger, on which Houston Person and Earl Edwards assume the tenor sax duties, is more interesting, with a slightly more gutbucket soul feel, though the title track too strongly recalls Bill Doggett's huge mid-'50s hit "Honky Tonk." "Brother John" sounds like a Ray Charles track without a vocal, and "Cleopatra and the African Knight," as the title indicates, incorporates a convincing tinge of Arabia. ~Richie Unterberger

Good 'Nuff

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Paul Young - Rock Swings

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:01
Size: 116.8 MB
Styles: Pop/Rock,Swing vocals
Year: 2006
Art: Front

[3:23] 1. Tainted Love
[4:05] 2. Bennie And The Jets
[4:29] 3. Enter Sandman
[4:10] 4. Why Does It Always Rain On Me
[4:26] 5. Isn't It A Pity
[4:15] 6. The Boys Of Summer
[5:12] 7. Lose Yourself
[4:01] 8. Hungry Heart
[3:06] 9. I'd Better Get My Coat
[3:07] 10. In The Ghetto
[3:23] 11. The Jean Genie
[3:56] 12. Walk On The Wild Side
[3:21] 13. White Christmas

As the title of this collection suggests, English blue-eyed soul man Paul Young, takes pop songs and reworks them into big band, Sinatra-Buble stylings. He covers songs made famous by Elvis, Springsteen, Elton John, Don Henley, and even Soft Cell and Eminem. What makes the collection special is that he pulls it off and it works more often than not. It's such a shame this wasn't a big hit. It has a rockabilly feel, kinda like something the Stray Cats might have tried.

I highly recommend this release to anyone who wants to try something extremely new, but also interestingly familiar. ~Last.FM

Rock Swings

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Kenny Davern & Flip Phillips - Spanish Eyes

Styles: Clarinet and Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1995
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 75:35
Size: 173,4 MB
Art: Front

( 0:25)  1. Opening Remarks
( 9:27)  2. Elsa's Dream
(10:57)  3. Flip's Dido
(10:31)  4. Spanish Eyes
( 6:35)  5. Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm
( 7:57)  6. Royal Garden Blues
(10:42)  7. Miki's Dream
( 6:18)  8. All Of Me
(12:39)  9. Lover Come Back To Me

As Gene Lees makes clear in his notes, there is escape from bebop. There's none of it here, or just a soupcon on one track from Phil Woods, who can't really help it, even if Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges were his earlier influences. But Phillips and Davern are a fine, tough pair and swing happily together despite a twenty-year age difference, a fact that goes to prove something. Certainly, their combination of tenor and clarinet falls agreeably on the ear, just as that of tenor and trombone does. They're caught in action here on a 1995 Floating Jazz Festival, with generally sympathetic backing by Derek Smith, Howard Alden, Milt Hinton and Joe Ascione, although some of Smith's piano solos at up tempo sound spectacularly overcrowded. The well-chosen program includes two attractive Phillips originals, "Flip's Dido" and to match Davern's "Elsa's Dream," an intriguing "Miki's Dream." Mrs. Davern is Elsa, but the identity of Dido and Miki is not revealed. The last and longest track, "Lover, Come Back to Me," on which Woods appears, runs for twelve and a half minutes that many will presumably find climactically exciting. ~ Stanley Dance  http://jazztimes.com/articles/7798-spanish-eyes-kenny-davern-flip-phillips

Personnel: Flip Phillips (tenor saxophone); Howard Alden (guitar); Kenny Davern (clarinet); Phil Woods (alto saxophone); Derek Smith (piano); Joe Ascione (drums).

Spanish Eyes

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Johanna Grussner - No More Blues

Styles: Jazz, Vocal
Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:25
Size: 109,2 MB
Art: Front

(6:54)  1. Out Of This World
(4:16)  2. The Touch Of Your Lips
(5:03)  3. My Ship
(3:18)  4. No More Blues
(5:44)  5. The Very Thought Of You
(4:18)  6. I'm Old Fashioned
(3:28)  7. Help
(5:45)  8. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
(4:52)  9. Hallelujah I Just Love Him So
(3:43) 10. Desafinado

Honestly, I do not know what thrills me more, the fact that Johanna Grussner's No More Blues makes a great companion disc to Peter Cincotti's On the Moon or the fact that it is the first Naxos Jazz release in two years. Let's address the second fact first. Naxos Records began Naxos Jazz in the late 1990s with the hope of replicating the same phenomenal success that the label's classical side has experienced. The result was sixty plus releases that I have written on in the past. The label has lain dormant for the past two years and now reemerges with the hope that the independent market is more receptive than at that time. This reemergence takes the form of a new vocal release by the beautiful Finnish chanteuse Johanna Grussner. Ms. Grussner makes No More Blues a notable recording in her choice of repertoire and instrumentation. The selections on this recording are eclectic and well chosen, ranging from the well covered "The Touch of Your Lips" and "The Very Thought of You" to the less frequently recorded "My Ship" and "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." The big surprises lie in the pop covers, "Help" and "Hallelujah I Just Love Him So," which treat the pop icons well and will surprise and delight. In her choice of instrumentation, Grussner forgoes the standard piano trio or quartet for the guitar variety. 

This effectively brings out the bossa nova quality of the singer's intentions and adds a particular synergy to the title tune and "Desafinado." This theme extends to the untethered "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and the rocking "Out of This World," which unconsciously mimics Cincotti's cover of "St. Louis Blues" on his On the Moon. Like Cincotti, Ms. Grussner covers a Ray Charles standard, "Hallelujah I Just Love Him So." She delivers the piece in a sultry fashion over the gutbucket guitar-bass-trio rhythm section. Her use of this ensemble is not unlike that of Cassandra Wilson, only more disciplined. Disciplined is how I would describe this recording, but not boring. This is a superb album deserving of anyone's year-end list. This is hyper-smart music that should satisfy the most critical among us. ~ C.Michael Bailey  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/no-more-blues-johanna-grussner-naxos-review-by-c-michael-bailey.php 
 

Personnel:  Johanna Grussner-Vocals;  Hans Glawishinig-Bass;  Antonio Sanchez-Drums;  Miles Okazaki-Guitar and  Paul Pesonen-Guitar

No More Blues

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Ken Peplowski Quintet - The Natural Touch

Styles: Clarinet Jazz
Year: 1992
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:03
Size: 149,5 MB
Art: Front

(5:00)  1. I'll Close My Eyes
(6:08)  2. The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else
(5:30)  3. Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry
(5:02)  4. Evidence
(4:39)  5. Evenin'
(3:40)  6. You Never Know
(4:24)  7. You Must Believe In Spring
(4:28)  8. Flunk Blues
(4:58)  9. Circle Of Threes
(5:32) 10. My Buddy
(5:06) 11. How Deep Is The Ocean
(5:21) 12. Say It Isn't So
(5:08) 13. I Thought About You

Ken Peplowski has been one of the most consistent performers in the "new mainstream" movement of the 1990s. Whether playing his fluent clarinet or warm tenor, Peplowski sounds quite comfortable as a creative swing player. As usual, this date with pianist Ben Aronov, guitarist Frank Vignola, bassist Murray Wall and drummer Tom Helito includes a couple more recent tunes (including Thelonious Monk's "Evidence" and originals by Aronov and Vignola), but it is the swing standards (such as "The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else," "Evenin'," and "I Thought About You") that are most memorable. 

~ Scott Yanow  http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-natural-touch-mw0000083774

Personnel:  Ken Peplowski - clarinet, tenor sax;  Frank Vignola - guitar;  Ben Aronov -  piano;  Murray Wall - bass; Tom Melito -  drums.

The Natural Touch

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Joe Temperley - Easy To Remember

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2002
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 74:05
Size: 170,2 MB
Art: Front

( 5:06)  1. That Old Feeling
( 4:36)  2. The Very Thought Of You
( 8:47)  3. I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart
( 2:49)  4. Easy To Remember
(10:09)  5. East Of The Sun
( 3:50)  6. Warm Valley
( 6:32)  7. Just Friends
( 5:44)  8. How Little We Know
( 3:50)  9. Some One To Watch Over Me
( 8:16) 10. Things Ain't What They Used To Be
( 4:36) 11. Ask Me Know
( 7:42) 12. Torpedo
( 2:02) 13. Hielan' Laddie

Veteran baritone saxophonist Joe Temperley (who doubles on soprano) is best known for stepping into the huge shoes of Harry Carney with the Mercer Ellington Orchestra and for playing with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Temperley's large tone is not overly heavy, and in fact he can play both rapid lines and in a more relaxed fashion with equal ease. On this set, his fourth CD as a leader for the Scottish Hep label, Temperley is heard in four different settings. Five songs (his "Torpedo" and four swing-era standards) have the saxophonist jamming with a British rhythm section (pianist John Pearce, bassist Andy Cleyndert, and drummer Steve Brown); he cooks on "That Old Feeling" and really stretches out on "East of the Sun." Five ballads feature Temperley's horns and the rhythm section joined by a string quartet and occasionally clarinetist/arranger Frank Griffith. Tony Coe and Temperley both play soprano saxes on "Just Friends" and "Things Ain't What They Used to Be" (blending together surprisingly well), while the leader takes the traditional Scottish folk melody "Hielan' Laddie" as a brief, unaccompanied baritone solo. Throughout, Joe Temperley improvises melodically and his tone is quite appealing and personal. An easily recommended set from one of the unsung greats of the baritone sax. ~ Scott Yanow  http://www.allmusic.com/album/easy-to-remember-mw0000016033

Personnel: Joe Temperley (soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone); Andy Laing, John Francis (violin); John Underwood (viola); Frank Griffith (clarinet); Tony Coe (soprano saxophone); John Pearce (piano); Steve Brown (drums).

Easy To Remember

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